Featured Android App Review: Hideman VPN [Tools]

Several months ago I reviewed TunnelBear VPN, and I just came across a similar app called Hideman VPN. Connecting to a secure VPN from your mobile device serves two purposes. The first is security. If you frequent public WiFis, anyone on the same network could steal passwords or any data that you send via the network. Now I don’t say that to make you panic. Chances are you will be okay, but being extra safe never hurt anyone. That’s where a secure VPN comes into play, or in this case Hideman VPN. After you’ve connected to the public WiFi, you simply connect to Hideman VPN and everything you do will be completely secure and nobody will have access. Hideman VPN uses AES-256 bit encryption, which is as good as it gets.

The second reason you might want to utilize a VPN is for access to things you don’t have because of your location. Say you are in the U.S. and you want access to the BBC iPlayer. The only way to do that would be to fly yourself over to the UK, but assuming you don’t have a private jet for such things, you can just connect to a VPN in the UK. It will appear as if you are in the UK, but you will actually be sitting on your couch in the U.S. The same works for those of you that are overseas and want access to Hulu or Google Music. Just connect to the U.S. VPN and you’re good to go.

There are a couple of advantages that Hideman VPN has over other VPN’s such as TunnelBear. The first is that there are a lot more countries to choose from for connecting, 17 to be exact. Examples are Canada, the UK, Russia, United States, Germany, Singapore, and so on. Naturally if you are just looking for a secure connection, these areas won’t matter so much, but if you need access to any of these countries, it’s nice to have the options. The other really nice feature is that there is a widget so you can quickly launch the app. On the negative side, download speeds are a little slower than what I was expecting. Normally you can expect a 15% drop in speed, but Hideman VPN was closer to 50%. Depending on what you’re doing, it probably won’t be a big deal for most people.

As you would expect, a service like this isn’t free, but depending on your needs, it might not cost you anything at all. You get five hours per week, which is really good. The catch is that you have to do it in blocks and it’s not contingent on whether you are actually connected to the the VPN or not. You get a total of six blocks and each block varies from approximately 40 minutes to 60 minutes. There is a counter at the top which tells you how many blocks you have remaining for the week. You tap it to start a block of time and it will continue to countdown whether you’re are connected or not. If you only need it once in a while when you are on a public WiFi, it might be enough. For those of you that need more, you can purchase time via SMS, Google Play, Paypal, etc. They offer different packages depending on how you want to pay, but for example, if you are looking to pay via SMS, you can grab 10 hours for $1.00, 30 hours for $2.90, 50 hours for $4.80, 80 hours for $7.60, and 100 hours for $9.50. Alternatively, you can buy 1 month for $2.90, 2 months for $4.90, 6 months for $16.90, or 1 year for $24.90. If you want more time, but don’t want to spend any dollars, you can also earn extra time by inviting your friends or trying apps through TapJoy.

If you’re looking to be more secure when you’re connected to a public WiFi and/or you need access to something in another country, definitely check out Hideman VPN. It’s free to try so you have nothing to lose. Check out my hands on video below and hit one of the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.

Robert lives in upstate New York where he was born and raised. Technology was always his passion. His first computer was a Radio Shack TRS80 Color that used a cassette tape to save programs, and his first laptop was a Toshiba T1200FB that sported a CGA greyscale screen and two 720kb floppy drives (no hardrive).
From the early 90’s through late 2011, he only owned Motorola phones starting with the MircroTAC all the way through to the Droid X. He broke that streak when he bought the Galaxy Nexus. Now he's sporting a Galaxy Note 4, and absolutely loves it.
He has a wonderful wife and a 6 year old son. In his free time he enjoys sports, movies, TV, working out, and trying to keep up with the rapid fast world of technology.

No thanks

I used the application but after a few minutes I received an email from Gmail stating that someone tried to access my Gmail account.

http://twitter.com/HidemanLtd Hideman Ltd.

This is normal google security behavior. When you connect to VPN your IP address will be changed, and when you are trying to use google services when old session is active you will get this notification.

Brad

How does this compare to Tunnelbear?

http://1 Robert Nazarian

TunnelBear is based on data and Hideman VPN is based on time. Hideman VPN offers a widget and more locations, but TunnelBear seems to be faster.